Our 40 Most Anticipated New Movies Coming in 2013

While Awards Season for 2012 films has just begun, we turn our sights forward to the promising slate of movies due out in 2013. Directors like Martin Scorsese, the Coen Brothers, Terrence Malick, J.J. Abrams, Richard Linklater and Joss Whedon all have new movies due out in the next 12 months. The following 40 movies are the ones we’re most excited about—not the ones that will necessarily have the biggest box office draws. They range from indie dramas to smart-looking popcorn blockbusters. They’re presented in calendar order, and we’ll update this list with trailers and release dates as they’re released.

21. Ender’s GameRelease Date: Nov. 1Director: Gavin HoodStars: Asa Butterfield, Abigail Breslin, Harrison Ford, Hailee SteinfeldWhy We’re Excited: We’re hoping this is the Gavin Hood that gave us Tsotsi, not the Gavin Hood that delivered X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The beloved Orson Scott Card novel about a boy at a military school preparing to fight an alien invasion has long begged for a big-screen adaptation.

22. The CounselorRelease Date: Nov. 15Director: Ridley ScottStars: Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, Penélope CruzWhy We’re Excited: The screenplay by Cormac McCarthy is about a lawyer caught up in the world of drug trafficking. Last time Javier Bardem was involved in a McCarthy project, we got No Country For Old Men.

24. A Long Way DownRelease Date: FallDirector: Pascal ChaumeilStars: Rosamund Pike, Aaron Paul, Pierce Brosnan, Toni ColletteWhy We’re Excited: Nick Hornby’s writing has worked well on the big screen—High Fidelity, An Education, About a Boy (we don’t count Fever Pitch since the movie wasn’t about soccer). And it’ll be good to see Aaron Paul outside his Breaking Bad meth lab.

25. Twelve Years a SlaveRelease Date: FallDirector: Steve McQueenStars: Quvenzhané Wallis, Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Fassbender, Michael K. Williams, Paul DanoWhy We’re Excited: McQueen and Fassbender follow Shame with a story set in the 1800s about a black New Yorker (Quvenzhané Wallis) who’s kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Deep South.

26. The Hobbit: The Desolation of SmaugRelease Date: Dec. 13Director: Peter JacksonStars: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Elijah WoodWhy We’re Excited: Despite the length and pace of the original, we’re glad for any excuse to revisit Tolkein’s Middle Earth with Peter Jackson as our guide. Plus, with Benedict Cumberbatch playing Smaug, it’s Sherlock and Watson back together at last.

28. The Monuments MenRelease Date: Dec. 20Director: George ClooneyStars: George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Daniel CraigWhy We’re Excited: Art historians don’t usually get to be the hero—or get portrayed by folks like Clooney, Damon and Craig—but in the The Monuments Men, they’ve got to recover art before it’s destroyed by Nazi Germans. We’re thinking Ocean’s Eleven meets Inglorious Basterds but with Bill Murray.

29. GravityRelease Date: 2013Director: Alfonso CuarónStars: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Basher Savage, Eric MichelsWhy We’re Excited: After rising to fame with the gritty Y Tu Mamá También, Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón took on the third film in the Harry Potter series before setting Children of Men in a dystopian future. Gravity, his first feature-length film since 2007, is another sci-fi thriller about astronauts stranded in space after their shuttle crashes into debris on the journey home.

30. Before MidnightRelease Date: 2013Director: Richard LinklaterStars: Ethan Hawke, Julie DelpyWhy We’re Excited: Unlike most movie relationships, we’ve already gotten to see Jesse and Celine connect twice in life, a night in Vienna (Before Sunrise) and an afternoon in Paris (Before Sunset). The characters are nearly 20 years older, and Greece is the setting for their latest encounter, though we’ll find out more when it screens at Sundance later this week.